Acronym Overload

What is it about acronyms? Seriously, I'm taking this emergency response class (CERT class through the local fire department), listening to political talk radio and I'm reading all these self-improvement books and they're full of ACRONYMS! My question is, how in the world am I supposed to keep them all straight?! And I'm not even going to start with all the two billion acronyms associated with Air Force.

I thought the point of acronyms was to make things easier to remember. Isn't it self-defeating when the same people come up with acronyms for every single thing? So if, by some miracle, I can remember the correct acronym in the correct circumstance, the chances of me remembering what each letter stands for are slim.

For example, how many ABC's do I know? Let's see, there's the alphabet, American Broadcasting Company, there's an ABC for CPR, there's ABC gum, I know one for holding difficult conversations, and there's at least 100 more (I know because I looked it up online). I just hope that when you're on the ground not breathing, I'm not there trying to agree, build and compare with you.

I heard a radio commercial recently for a motel chain that went something like this, "We now offer free WiFi. Which stands for Wireless....something or other." I totally LOL-ed (laughed out loud) when I heard that because it's true! I don't know what the Fi stands for in WiFi. How many acronyms do we use and don't know what they mean? What are your favorites?

Question: Why is it that some acronyms aren't even real acronyms? Some of them add in an extra letter so that it will be a word which more often than not makes it more confusing.

Side Note: CERT = Citizen Emergency Response Team (I think). What does CPR stand for anyway?